Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1887-12-31
THE PEOPLES WILL
A MORE PERFECT ORGANIZA-
TON OF SOCIETY.
Public FunctiOns-The Irresistible
Tendencies OF Social Activity.
The State Assuming Power.
EVOlutiOn-The New
Civilization.
E.ctract from Laurence Gronlunds neu
book, Ca ira.

book, Ca ira.
The State itself is profound fact
of our Spontaneous, unconscious as
ISOLATION. The State is the organized
society, the as yet imperfectly organ
lied society. The tendencies of
which we now are going to speak are
really efforts towards organizing So
ciety more and more closely; that
is, towards making the State more
and more perfect.
There was u time when it was
doubtful whether the State or the
Church was going to be the 4 I'm in
which the spontaneous ASSOCIATE of
men was to be embodied. The
Power behind Evolution long ago
decided in favor of the State, and
relegated the Church to the condl-
ton of merely voluntary assoca-
ton everywhere, practically speak
ing.
The first of these tendencies mani
tests itself in the
P0sto0ce Deporiment, with its i'm
portant b anches of banking and ex-
pressing. This is, in all civilized
countries, the first industrial func-
ton the State has taken upon itself ;
and it has performed that function
50 well, that none could be found
fool enough to vote it back to the
hands of private corporations. If
two or three companies performed
the service in the United States,
does any one believe that he could
send a postal-card from New York
to San Francisco quickly and safely
f)r one cent?
We may note, in passing, that the
side functions above mentioned are
suggestive germs of future import
ant activities.
Next look at The .N0tiOnal 7ele-
qraph Serpice. Is it not suggestive
that the country of Herbert Spencer,
the home of the "let-alone" doc
trine, has been so vigorously pur-
suing the contrary course in practice
us to nationalize the telegraph sys-
TEN? The advantages thereby gained
are easily seen by comparing Great
Britain with the United States,
where the telegraph is yet a private
monopoly. Even before the six
penny telegrams were introduced,
the former country sent annually
four times as many dispatches at
half the price.
Consider now Pub2ic Educati0n.
There the United States is undoubt-
edly yet ahead of England. Her
common-school system, spanning the
whole course from primary schools
to the universities, is Justly famous ;
and the public spirit, branding the
rich families who keep their chill
dren away from them as unpatriotic,
is admirable. But as the system,
unfortunately, is not yet national,
only section of the country enjoys
its blessings. England, however,
has undoubtedly since 1870 made
giant progress in this direction, and
will, it seems, soon surpass the
United States by instituting National
Board schools rivalling the latter's
common schools, and where children
will get one meal Il day at least. All
Spencer is right in looking on the
institution of these Board schools as
the greatest blow to his individual
listic philosophy, for it means adopt
ing the true principle, the corner
stone of public responsibility, that
He eaucatiiOa Of children Is Of more
r0ncern to the community than TO
parents =; or, as Danton said, that
Children belong to the nation
rather than to parents"
The English factory Acts denote
another most interesting step in
social evolution. The joint empire
of the aristocracy and plutocracy
there ceased by the Reform Act OF